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Having been tied up most weekends this summer with a major DIY project my running had to take a bit of a back seat. So with the prospects of the first free weekend for sometime coming up I decided to make the most of the opportunity and get some training in ready for the Sandstone Trail Race.

For some time I had been pondering over the idea of doing the 3 peaks. However I didn’t want to spend 10 hours in a car travelling the length of the country to visit the three highest points in Scotland, England and Wales. I didn’t either want to wait until next April for the slightly more local Yorkshire version. No my version was far more convenient.

So it was on a fine Sunday morning that I set off to jog the 3 miles up to the top of Eddisbury Hill. My starting point for this challenge was the central stone of the stone circle overlooking Delamere Forest. From here the plan was to run to the trig point on Helsby Hill and then to the Memorial on the top of Frodsham Hill. To complete the course the plan was to then return back to the starting point on Eddisbury Hill.

Given that my longest run over the previous 2 months was only a little over an hour I headed off towards Helsby at a steady pace. Following mainly footpaths but with some roads to keep a fairly direct route I reached the trig point on the top of Helsby Hill in a little over 53 minutes. The second stage of the route was probably the most familiar as a lot of it followed the normal summer time Wednesday club run route until it joined the Sandstone trail which I joined to head up to the Frodsham Hill memorial. This leg the shortest of the three saw me reach the railings at the memorial 32 minutes. Now all that remained was to get back to Eddisbury. Keeping a fairly direct route and sticking mainly to the trails, though some road couldn’t be avoided I returned to my starting point in almost exactly 1 hour.

After a few well earned minutes admiring the views and trying to identify the distant geographic features that are commemorated by metal plaques arranged round the centre stone circle I slowly jogged the last 3 miles home.

My total time for the Helsby 3 peaks route was 2 hours 26 minutes and 9 seconds. The total distance covered was 15.4 miles and I can safely say it made for a thoroughly enjoyable Sunday morning run.

The Challenge

So now that I’ve set a time for the route it seemed a good idea to throw open the “Helsby 3 Peaks Challenge” to everyone else at the club.

The rules of the challenge are pretty straight forward.

To run between the three peaks listed below following a circular route which must start and finish at one of the 3 summits.

Please find attached some links to three scanned pages from last Septembers Running Fitness magazine which featured an article on our intrepid and now legendary runners, sailors & cyclists Jackie, Trevor and Phil who not only attempted but finished well in last years Three Peaks Yacht Race

Well it’s certainly been a purple patch for Helsby runners in the last week or two, with some great performances over distances long and short and some good write-ups too. With this in mind, I’m almost hesitant to add to the wordcount by blowing my own little trumpet…

If you care though, there’s a write-up of the Yorkshire Three Peaks fell race over on my blog at furious cycling. I’d wanted to run the Three Peaks, ever since I’d started to get interested in fell running. The thought of racing over that sort of distance seemed preposterous; so unlikely. That alone was enough to tickle my fancy.

Two years ago Phil Gillard ran it when it was a World Championship event. Talking to him afterwards, he was clearly a man who’d gone through something (…shortly afterwards Phil was under the surgeon’s knife for rebuilding, Steve Austin style). Last September I had a go at the cyclo cross version of the same three hills, with a bit of road thrown in. This seemed like a nice way of doing the double. Read on here…

Like this:

It’s not all running… as well as running, training and racing lots of club members get involved in all sorts of other sports.

One fool recently thought it would be an idea to do the Yorkshire Three Peaks. On a bike.

“As it got proper steep, I found my own lines out right away from the fence and crowds, and picked off places, without getting too in debt. Fell running fitness I guess. This thing went on for ages though, you go into another zone. One foot, other foot. Keep off the calves if you can. Zig-zag a bit for relief. Eventually the angle eased. More pushing, more carrying, some riding… [read more on Steve’s site]